


A Straight Backed Boy

by Sassaphrass



Category: The White Queen (TV)
Genre: F/M, Identity, Love, Richard's Scoliosis, Wedding Night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-02
Updated: 2014-10-02
Packaged: 2018-02-19 16:01:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2394419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sassaphrass/pseuds/Sassaphrass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Richard that Anne meets on the battle field is very different from the one she remembers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Straight Backed Boy

When he was young Richard held himself awkward and spoke shyly.

Anne had always felt more at ease with him than the other members of her father's circle and the king's court. He was an ungainly and disappointing youngest as well.

 

When she sees him on the battle field it seems all that is gone. He has grown into himself. His shoulders no longer seem too stiff, his features no longer seem like they'd be more at home on the face of a rodential woodland creature. His hair is long, dark and curls handsomely around his face.

 

He looks every inch the prince he has always been. More than that he is as handsome as either of his brothers ever were.

 

Anne is still only herself though. She knows that the years have not made her beautiful in the same way that they have made Richard handsome.

 

She is a princess now, though.

 

So, she reminds him of that.

 

In the long months since he found her on that battle field, she has all but forgotten that awkward young man he once was. So, when she sees him shirtless on her wedding night it is a shock.

 

He looks almost afraid of her as he stands there. It is not that he is deformed but his back is obviously a little crooked and one shoulder sits higher than the other.

 

She thinks back to how stiffly he used to stand when he was young, the way he always seemed to be squaring his shoulders.

 

He must have a clever tailor.

 

He smiles at her nervously. She smiles back just as nervous.

 

Perhaps he is truly still the boy she once knew and she is the one who has become something other.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I watched the majority of the White Queen expecting Richard's scoliosis of the spine to be revealed after his armour is striped when he was killed in battle. Because that was how I was interpreting his character it seemed like there was maybe something off about the way he held himself and that his shoulders seemed disproportionately wide and other small things. 
> 
> I was kind of disappointed when that was not something used in the show. 
> 
> FYI: Richard the III was not a hunchback but his skeleton shows that he did have scoliosis (his back was crooked) and so one shoulder would have sat a bit higher than the other. Everyone seems to agree this is something that a tailor could easily hide and would have made no difference to his ability to be active and athletic.


End file.
